All posts tagged Tom Perrotta

The main characters in HBO’s new series “The Leftovers,” are all melting down at various paces, three years after the day when millions of people around the world inexplicably disappeared.

Unfortunately, none of those left behind are particularly likeable, so it is hard to muster much sympathy as they blunder through an increasingly unhinged suburban landscape.

The 10-episode series, based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, chronicles how people in the fictional Mapleton, N.Y., deal with a mysterious event labeled the “Sudden Departure.” That’s a stand-in for “The Rapture,” with an inconvenient wrinkle: The 2% of the world’s population that vanished is a ragbag of ages and dispositions. They are a jumble of saints and sinners, believers and atheists, celebrities and ordinary people. Read More »

Tom Perrotta didn’t have to look far for the stories that make up his new collection, “Nine Inches.” In some cases, he just had to read his email.

One short story, “The All-Night Party,” came from a string of hectoring emails from parents on the planning committee for a graduation party at his kids’ high school. Mr. Perrotta resisted the urge to hit delete and instead volunteered as a chaperone. He got stuck with the 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift. He recreated parts of the scene in “The All-Night Party,” through the eyes of a lonely divorced mother who gets stuck on the “graveyard” chaperone shift at an overnight dance, and ends up in a fight with a student. Read More »

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